


Da Capo

by JikuDriverVoice_RiderCrime



Series: Ringing the Changes [2]
Category: Kamen Rider Zi-O
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 15:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16221737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JikuDriverVoice_RiderCrime/pseuds/JikuDriverVoice_RiderCrime
Summary: You can stop a clock, turn it back, and let it run again. A clock’s hands have nowhere to go except along the same path.





	Da Capo

**Author's Note:**

> It helps to read the first part in the series, Kingmaker, first.

The weary king returns to his bedchamber, another day in tatters behind him. As a daydreaming kid, he hadn’t expected it all to be so- lonely. Exhausting, yes, he’d sort of thought that would be the case, but in his fantasies there were a lot more people around him all the time. Guards, cooks, gamekeepers, servants, that sort of thing. Lords and ladies of the court. Advisers.

  
“My overlord.”

  
He has one faithful adviser, if that’s the right way to put it, currently bowing to him in the middle of his bedroom. Had Woz been there waiting for him to come in, or had he appeared the moment the door opened? That had always been part of the mystery.

  
“What’s in your book this time, Woz?” He almost doesn’t want to know. The proclamations are never _lo, on this night the king got eight hours of uninterrupted sleep._

  
“Your glorious victory in tomorrow’s battle agains-“

  
“No, don’t tell me, I can’t bear to hear the names right now. At least that means I’m coming back with all my limbs. What about tonight?”

  
Woz closes his book. “Nothing grand, my lord.”

  
“Good.” His armoured footsteps are loud as he crosses the room, and he dumps himself into the armchair without bothering to undo the transformation. “Maybe I can try to relax if nobody has a go at killing me for one evening.”

  
“I will make sure of it,” says Woz, firmly enough to be a reassurance. “Shall I send for your dinner? Or have a bath drawn?”

  
Both sound good, but walking and eating are exhausting. When he says nothing, Woz comes over and kneels before him, and all of a sudden Woz’s head is resting on his knee.

  
“Would you like for me to help you relax, my lord?” Woz asks, eyes wide and voice gentle. He strokes Woz’s hair in quiet acceptance, and Woz reaches forward to disengage Oma Zi-O’s driver.

After that, and dinner and a bath, he wonders if it would all have been easier if he’d had a partner.

  
\--

  
The golden king returns to his bedchamber, another day of tough work behind him. He has so many advisers, and they all end up bickering and squabbling over the smallest details. It’s exhausting to listen to all of them and try to make them all happy. He could do with a having fewer of them, really. And then the castle is filled with so many friendly staff that he can never seem to find a corner for a moment to himself. He has to put the armour on sometimes just to get people to stop bothering him with details.

  
“My overlord.”

  
Even here, in his own room- although this one, he didn’t mind at all. Woz was reading, stretched out in the huge bed. When he’d first seen the bed, he’d laughed at the ridiculous size, thinking it was big enough for eight people and yet he’d be sleeping in it alone. As it had turned out, it was just the right size for two.

  
“What’s in your book this time, Woz?” He asks, as he walks over to sit on the edge of the bed.

  
“I’ve been trying to make it out, but it’s unclear what’s supposed to happen after the King retires for the evening. Either he eats dinner, or he takes a bath, or...” Woz flips the book shut and gives a coy smile. “Something else. Quite impossible to tell what.”

  
He cups Woz’s cheek in one gloved hand, feels immensely warm at the way Woz presses himself into the touch and looks up. “You. You’re as lovely as the day I met you.”

  
“As are you, my lord.” Woz laughs at their private joke, and it feels like a peal of bells.

  
While they’re making love, Woz seems a little distracted. But when he asks about it, Woz begs him not to worry and to just keep going.

  
\--

  
The victorious king returns to his bedchamber, another day in ashes behind him. Today’s battles were easy, but their sheer number was exhausting. New attacks keep coming somehow. They know they can’t beat him. They must know by now, and yet they are always at the door. So the fight goes on, bored as he’s getting of it.

  
“My overlord.”

  
Woz will comfort him.

  
It’s Woz’s fault he’s here at all.

  
Dinner is ready on the table that Woz is bowing next to, and he can hear the rumble of the bath filling in the bathroom nearby. He disengages his driver as he crosses the room, and tosses it onto the table before he sits. It knocks his glass, but the wine doesn’t spill.

  
“What’s in your book this time, Woz?” he asks, and Woz tells him the details of today’s and tomorrow’s battles as he eats. There’s no need to discuss plans; as long as he follows what’s set out in the book, victory is assured. It’s fate.

  
Once he’s finished his steak he allows Woz to remove his boots and socks, then undresses the rest of the way as Woz makes the final adjustments to the bath. He piles his clothes onto the dining chair. It’s a perk of kingship, having people to clear up after you. He doesn’t miss having to clean his room himself, like he did as a child.

  
In the bath Woz sits naked and waiting, and washes his hair and back for him. Sometimes he lets Woz work, then picks up and carries the young man to bed, some other times he orders Woz to make the bed ready for him while he soaks. Tonight he kisses and grabs Woz at every possible moment, deliberately making it difficult for Woz, so he ends up with shampoo in his eyes. Nevertheless, the water is warm and Woz makes lovely noises. When he is asked if he wants to move to the bed, he is suddenly contrarily determined to bring things to a finish right there, and does.

  
As he’s dozing off a few minutes later to the quiet sounds of Woz clearing clothes and plates, it occurs to him that it might be rather fun to wind Woz up my making him change the sheets twice in quick succession. And it’s not as though Woz doesn’t deserve to be teased, at least, since it’s Woz’s fault he’s here at all.

  
\--

  
The king returns to his bedchamber, another day behind him...


End file.
